Development of Mathematical Models for Predicting Performance of CFC12, HFC134a and R290/R600 Mixture Refrigerants using Design of Experiments

In this paper, mathematical models are developed using design of experiments technique for the prediction of refrigeration system parameters such as refrigerating capacity, power consumption and coefficient of performance. The models developed are checked for their adequacy using F-test. The performances of vapour compression refrigeration system with various refrigerants R12, R134a and R290/R600 are compared. The R290/R600 mixture shows 19.3-27.9% higher coefficient of performance than that with R12 and R134a and it is found that the hydrocarbon mixture with 79% propane and 21% butane can be used as a substitute for CFC12 and HFC134a.